I would recommend you to try to keep the women as far from the fort as possible; to build a good substantial hospital; to employ a first-class physician, (and you had better have a good one or none at all,) always have a good supply of medicines, and, as far as my department is concerned, I believe you can do the Indians a vast deal of good. They are remarkably healthy at present; no epidemic has appeared among them since I came here. And now, sir, hoping the scanty information I have given you may prove of benefit to the future welfare of the Indians,

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Colonel THEO. H. DODD,

M. HILLARY, M. R. C. S. Ireland, Brevet Captain and Assistant Surgeon U. S. Army.

Agent for Navajo Indians, Fort Sumner, N. M.

Consolidated report of sick and wounded Indians under treatment from January 1, 1866, to August 31, 1866, at Navajo Indian Hospital, Fort Sumner, New Mexico, under charge of M. Hillary, brevet captain and assistant surgeon United States army:

Number remaining under treatment December 31, 1865, 10; total number under treatment for above period, 321; number discharged from hospital during above period, 309; number died in hospital during above period, 4; number remaining in hospital August 31, 1866, 18. The ten added to three hundred and twenty-one makes the aggregate 331.

Of the above number treated in hospital there were 235 cases of syphilis, the others being mostly diseases of bones, inflammation of the eye, itch, &c. Skin diseases come next in prevalence to syphilis, which is due to the uncleanly state of the skin, &c.

M. HILLARY, M. R. C. S. I.,

Brevet Captain and Assistant Surgeon United States Army.

No. 47.

OFFICE OF SUPERINTENDENT INDIAN AFFAIRS,

Santa Fe, New Mexico, July 31, 1866.

SIR: Upon investigation I find that the Comanches have been attracted to this Territory by the number of Mexican traders constantly visiting them with donkeys loaded with merchandise, and in many instances with whiskey and ammunition.

These traders exchange goods for cattle and horses, thereby giving a market and encouraging the Comanches to steal from the inhabitants of Texas and Arkansas, which I consider very unjust to the people of those States; and I have no doubt that these Mexican traders, being generally opposed to the Bosque, have incited the Comanches to make these late raids upon the herds of the Navajoes, in order, not only to get their horses to sell and use, but also to make the Navajoes still more dissatisfied with their situation; and, worse than all, these traders doubtless have supplied the Comanches with ammunition and whiskey.

On my way back from the Bosque I met not less than sixty or seventy of these donkeys, loaded with goods, and about half that number of traders, and all claim to have permits to trade with the Comanches from General Carleton, and in one instance from General Pope. But when I would ask for the permits, some other man ahead had it. In conferring with General Carleton, I find that he has, in some instances, granted such permits, and when a Mexican gets one, fifty will trade on the same license, claiming they are doing business for the man that has the permit. This trade has been really immense of late. I know of on e man here in Santa Fe who took about one hundred and fifty dollars' worth of goods there, and came back with one hundred head of Texas cattle for his goods.

I consider that General Carleton really had no right to grant such permits. I believe he thinks so himself now, and agrees to co-operate with me in putting a stop to it altogether. I have therefore caused to be published an order revoking all permits heretofore issued and not duly approved by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs at Washington, D. C., and stating that all persons found violating this order should be punished to the full extent of the law. Hoping that my action in this matter will meet with your approval, I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

A. B. NORTON, Superintendent of Indian Affairs.

P. S.-I think an agency established for these Comanches at Fort Bascomb, and a treaty, would exert a wholesome influence over them. I would make them, at least for the present, an exception to the general reservation policy, of which I am in favor, for reasons which I will give you in the future.

Hon. D. N. COOLEY.

A. B. N.

Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

No. 48.

OFFICE SUPERINTENDENT INDIAN AFFAIRS,
Santa Fe, New Mexico, July 29, 1866

SIR: On my return here from the Bosque I found a party of citizens from Tierra Amarilla complaining that about twelve hundred Utes were in the neighborhood of that place, and that they were in a very destitute condition, both hungry and naked, and were committing depredations upon their herds and turning their horses in upon their crops. They said if these Indians were given something to eat and some ammunition, that they would go off on a hunt, and might not molest them until they might be able to gather their crops. I immediately sent for Mr. Manuel Garcia, sub-agent, living at Abiquiu, and, in accordance with the suggestion of this delegation of citizens visiting me, I have taken the responsibility and directed him to purchase two hundred sheep, at three dollars each, and distribute among them. I also purchased, in accordance with the request of said delegation, seventy-five pounds of powder, two hundred pounds of lead, ten thousand caps, and one hundred pounds of tobacco, which I gave him and took his receipt therefor, and directed him to proceed immediately to Tierra Amarilla and distribute the sheep, ammunition, and tobacco, and to tell them to go off on a hunt and stay as long as they can gain a subsistence, and that I could not promise them anything more short of thirty days-it might be sixty. Does my action meet with your approval, and shall I furnish them with any inore provision, and to what extent? If I am to furnish any more, you had better send me the money for that purpose, as the credit of the Indian department is so poor here that the people ask me forty dollars per head for cattle that they say they are willing to take thirty dollars in cash for.

If I don't get a letter from you to go to Fort Stanton in a few days, I shall visit these Indians soon, and then shall be able to report more fully as to their condition. My own opinion at present is that they should be got on the reservation as soon as possible. I have just seen Colonel Kit Carson, and that is his opinion, and he and Colonel Dodd both join in recommending that the location of said reservation be on the San Juan or Rio Los Animas, which region of country they have both visited and are familiar with. They say there is abundance of wood and fine timber, excellent water, and a sufficiency of productive and tillable soil, and good hunting ground. I would therefore make the same suggestion with reference to this selection of the reservation, if it meets with your approbation, that I made with reference to that of the Apaches below Stanton, to wit, that General Mitchell, General Clark, and Colonel Dodd be authorized and empowered to accompany me and make the selection for said reservation

I suggest that Colonel Dodd be associated with us, because, having prospected for gold in all that region of country for over a year, he is more familiar with it, perhaps, than any other man to be found in this Territory.

Archuleta having been suspended, asks for an investigation of all charges against him, and that I be authorized to investigate and report on the same.

Garcia, the sub-agent, who was stationed at Tierra Amarilla, has removed to Abiquiu. He seems to be a good-hearted and honest man, but is timid and really afraid of the Indians. He says when the last goods were distributed, that the Indians, although the superintendent was present, were so dissatisfied with the goods on account of their small amount that they were uncontrollable and appropriated many things to suit themselves, and that it was really unsafe for an agent to remain among them if he was without any money or goods to occa sionally administer to their wants. Hence you see the necessity of the agency and military post being at one and the same place.

No money received yet from your department, and I do assure you that on that account my situation is very embarrassing and by no means a pleasant one. Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

A. B. NORTON, Superintendent Indian Affairs, New Mexico.

Hon. D. N. COOLEY,

Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

No. 49.

Memorial to the honorable Congress of the United States.

Your memorialists, the council and house of representatives of the legislative assembly of the Territory of New Mexico, would most respectfully represent that for many years the citizens of this Territory have suffered annually in the loss of life and property from the depredations of the Indians in our midst and by whom we are surrounded.

By the reports which are on file in the office of the secretary of this Territory, the loss of life and property up to this date is as follows, viz: 123 persons reported killed, 32 reported wounded, and 21 reported captives. Property stolen: 3,559 horses, mules, and asses; 13,473

head of cattle; and 294,740 head of sheep and goats; valued at the total sum of ($1,377,329 60) one million three hundred and seventy-seven thousand three hundred and twenty-nine dollars and sixty cents.

More than eighteen years have now passed since our Territory was received, as such, under the protection of the government of the United States, and during all that number of years our people have been suffering unceasingly from the loss of life and property, occasioned by the incursions made upon them by the tribes of hostile Indians, notwithstanding the vigilance of ourselves and the troops of the government.

In addition to the amount of reports made by law to the secretary of our Territory, we are confident that many thousand horses, sheep, cattle, and other property in which our wealth consists, have been, during the last two years, annually swept from us by these barbarians which have not been reported. Our people lie down to sleep surrounded by abundance, but they arise in the morning to learn that during the night they have been robbed.

Such has been the condition of affairs in this Territory for a series of years, and although some provision has been made by the Congress of the United States to reimburse such of our citizens as have been thus robbed by the savages of their property, it has as yet been found impracticable, on account of the complicated requisites of the law upon the subject, for those who have suffered the loss to comply with the requirements of the law in force in making up their claims for indemnification.

Your memorialists, in view of the facts above mentioned, and the impossibility of remedying them under existing laws, would most respectfully request that a board of commissioners be created, to consist of three persons to be appointed by the honorable Secretary of the Interior Department, to hear the complaints of our people, to examine the testimony presented to establish the losses our citizens have suffered by Indian depredations, and to report to the Secretary of the Interior Department the amount that should be paid to the people of New Mexico, so that those who are rightly entitled may receive their just dues. And your memorialists, as in duty bound, will ever pray.

Resolved, That the honorable secretary of the Territory be, and is hereby, requested to forward certified copies of the above memorial to the Vice-President of the United States, with the request that he will communicate it to the honorable United States Senate, also to the honorable Speaker of the House of Representatives of Congress, to the honorable Secretary of the Interior, to the honorable Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and to Hon. J. Fran cisco Chaves, our delegate in Congress.

Approved:

MIGUEL E. PINO,

President of the Council. SAMUEL ELLISON,

Speaker of the House of Representatives, N. M.

HENRY CONNELLY, Governor N. M.

I, W. F. M. Arny, secretary of the Territory of New Mexico, do hereby certify that the foregoing is a translated copy from the original in Spanish as passed by the legislature, which is on file in my office.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed my official seal at Santa Fé, New Mexico, this 2d day of February, 1866. [SEAL.]

W. F. M. ARNY, Secretary Territory of New Mexico.

COLORADO SUPERINTENDENCY.

No. 50.

SUPERINTENDENCY OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, COLORADO TERRITORY,

Denver, October 10, 1866.

SIR: From the time I assumed charge of the duties of this superintendency until the arrangements were perfected for my recent visits to the different bands of Indians, as agreed upon personally with you in Washington, the history of its affairs, during a period of seven to eight months, will be found fully covered by the correspondence which I had the honor to conduct with the department during that time.

When I arrived in the Territory in October, 1865, the annual distributions had been made, and my predecessor had but just returned from his interview with the Tabequaches, to whom he had given annuities of goods and stock. He was under the impression that the Indians, when he parted with them, had resolved to go across the mountains toward or into their reservation.

The Uintah and Wampa or Green River bands had received their presents from their agent, Major D. C. Oakes, and had gone back to their mountain home, where they remained during

the winter, with an occasional foray after their hereditary enemies, the Arapahoes and Cheyennes, but making no disturbance with the white settlements.

It would seem, however, that the Tabequaches never had much idea of going to their reservation, or, if they had, they very soon abandoned it. A frequent muttering of discontent with their present condition led to the correspondence which is on file in your department, particularly letters dated 14th and 21st of February and March 2, marked A, B, C, copies of which are annexed, and finally to your order that I should meet them and inquire into. and endeavor to remove, the causes of complaint. Your order also authorized a council for treaty with the other bands. Both of these missions have been executed to the best of my ability. It was my purpose, upon my return a few days ago from the Conejos agency, to have made special reports of these two meetings, but, upon reflection, I have concluded it best to embody them in this annual report, as by this means, with my previous correspondence, you will have a connected account of the entire transactions through the year.

In compliance with your instructions I had telegraphed from Philadelphia to Agent Oakes to make arrangements with the Indians of his charge to meet for council in Middle Park about August 15, and in pursuance of the same authority associated with me, as a commissioner, the Hon. A. C. Hunt, of Denver. In accordance with that appointment I met them in council, having two principal objects in view: first, to induce them to give up the lands now claimed and occupied by them; and second, if possible, to persuade them to join their relatives (the Tabequaches) on the reservation prescribed by the treaty of 1863–64.

The necessity for the first of these objects arises from the fact that settlers are constantly going to their country, and that roads are being made through it, very much to the dissatisfaction of the Indians. I took with me to this meeting, in accordance with your authority, a quantity of provisions and cattle, and part of the goods which had been stored in Denver for a year or two past. I met the Indians under very favorable circumstances; found them in a very good humor, with only occasional exceptions; but I soon learned that they were utterly averse to parting with the lands in question, and also unwilling to even entertain the proposition of permitting roads to be made through their grounds.

After discussing these questions with them during several days, in various councils, I ventured to illustrate to them, by a map drawn upon the ground where we were sitting, that much of the land to which they laid claim had already been surrendered to the government by their relatives the Tabequache Utes, who had claimed to have a right to it, and had sold it by treaty. This exasperated them very much, and they at once pronounced, without any dissent, that this pretension was a great wrong and outrage upon them as a people. They said the Tabequaches had never sold these lands, but if they had done it they had no right whatever to do so. They said the country they were now occupying was their own huntingground; that it was the only locality in which they could find game, and that no power should disturb them in their possession of it.

I persisted so long in the effort to induce them to abandon their claim and go over to the White river to a reservation in the immediate vicinity of the Tabequache reserve, that it seemed likely at one time to lead to unpleasant consequences, and I therefore ceased from further effort in that direction, and confined myself to the endeavor to induce them to enter into a treaty for allowing roads to be made through their grounds, with an agreement on their part not to disturb those engaged in constructing the roads or settling upon them, and for them to surrender to government authority any individuals among them who might commit wrongs. It would be difficult to convey to you any adequate idea of the amount of concession they think they were asked to make in this proposition. They are quite intelligent, and point with great earnestness to the condition of all the places where the whites have obtained a foothold. And they say with great force that if roads and settlements are allowed to be made in their present hunting grounds, which is all that is left to them, the game will vanish and they will soon be left to starvation. Even now the game is scarce, and they find it very difficult to obtain food from the chase, or skins to traffic for the articles they need from the whites. During my recent visits, I traversed the ground over which these Indians roam, through a great extent, covering a space of not less than four hundred miles from north to south in the mountains, and westward from the foot-hills not less than one hundred miles, far beyond the snowy range through the region known as the Middle Park, crossing the South Park several times, and extending westward far into the San Luis valley, and southward almost to the line of New Mexico, and during all my journeyings I did not see sufficient game, if it had all been secured, to subsist the inmates of a single Indian lodge for a month! It will readily be seen how imperatively such a state of things as this calls for the earnest and beneficent intervention of the government.

These bands, the Uintahs and Wampas, are a quiet, peaceably-disposed people; say they want to live on friendly terms with the whites, and deprecate any cause of disturbance be tween them. Charges are made against them, which are not improbable, that they occasionally go to the settlements and kill cattle. They are often pressed by hunger when their hunting is unsuccessful, and many of these charges of depredation are true. The natural anger of the settlers leads to the shooting of the Indians who attempt to steal cattle, and the bloody reprisals of the Indians is the cause of nearly every war.

The result of a protracted effort is the treaty which I have the honor to forward. Although not what I had proposed to myself to obtain, I am sure it will be productive of great good.

Immediately upon my return from this expedition, having previously despatched some of the goods which were at Denver, I repaired to the Conejos agency, in the San Luis valley, to meet the Tabequaches.

My mission there was of a different character, inasmuch as a definite treaty had been entered into with those Indians, and my object was to get them to carry it out. But what seemed to be a very simple and plain object proved much more difficult of accomplishment than the purpose aimed at with their northern relatives.

Although they have shown no open hostility, their depredations being confined to stealing cattle, though in considerable numbers and in some cases making very serious grievances to individuals, yet it is very evident they have been in quite a bad humor for a long time. They make very grave allegations against the government, or the government authorities. They assert, roundly, that the treaty by which it is now claimed they are bound is not the treaty to which they agreed. They say that the boundaries of the lands surrendered by them, as well as of the lands reserved to them, are not in accordance with their understanding. It will be readily understood that it was impossible for them to comprehend what the amendments meant, when I state that the treaty reprinted as amended was not used in the council. But the paper presented for ratification simply stated, in the usual form of journalizing in a legislative body, that certain words in given lines should be stricken out, and other words substituted, no statement being shown of what the articles would be when changed. And these alterations occupied two or three pages, making it difficult, if not impossible, even for an intelligent reader without the treaty before him to understand what the changes accomplished. Their assertion is therefore credible when they say they did not comprehend the changes effected by the amendments, and they assert, also, that the provision for compensation for their lands as set forth in the present treaty is not what was agreed upon. They claim that the stock and animals they were to have were reduced in number, and that the periods over which the annuities were to extend were for fifteen years and not five years, as they now stand in the treaty. And what is quite remarkable in this connexion, the interpreters agree with them, as does also Major L. Head, their agent, in these assertions.

In reply to my remark to them that they had agreed to this treaty and its amendments, they said it was such an agreement as the buffalo makes with his hunters when pierced with arrows: all he can do is to lie down and cease every attempt at escape or resistance. They said the Great Father at Washington had sent them soldiers with guns and all the means of a terrible war, and they could only submit. But, notwithstanding all this, they would have reconciled themselves with the terms of the treaty, if it had been fulfilled even in accordance with its present provisions, which it is not pretended has been done in a single instance.

When I pointed them to the fact that I had come among them without arms, without soldiers, with an open hand, and words of kindness and good-will from the Great Father at Washington, they said they heard these words gladly, and if they were faithfully carried out all would yet be well. They said the Great Father had received lands from them, and was rich enough to pay them all that was agreed upon. But still, if he would not do that, and would fulfil the treaty as it now stood without delays, they would try to be content.

I was much surprised to find the destitute condition of these Indians. They were in no wise so comfortable in their circumstances as the Indians of the Middle Park agency. While a few of them had blankets or skins, or other clothing, the appearance of the mass of them was that of squalid wretchedness, many of them being nearly naked. And this was during the hunting season, when they were far better provided than during the previous winter. I learned that the utter destitution was such that to preserve them from actual starvation their agent was under the necessity of supplying them with food through the winter and spring, and I was informed by General Carson that their frequent appeals for food to him at Fort Garland had compelled him to apply to the commanding general of the department for anthority to issue rations to them to save them from miserably perishing from hunger. Of course, it will at once be seen that this condition of things cannot last, and the question arises, what is the remedy?

After the most careful and thoughtful consideration of the whole subject, I have arrived at the conclusion that the only course to be pursued is, by such means as the government may deem wise to adopt, to unite all the different bands and fragments of the Utes into one body and to offer them such inducements as will insure their concentration in a selected portion of the country. If the territory assigned to the Tabequaches is not sufficient-as it evidently is not-then let it be enlarged or exchanged for another more spacious; maintain a sufficient military force in the vicinity to repress disorders and prevent encroachments by whites or Indians on either side; and by treaty agree to give them a sufficient number of cattle and sheep to insure them the means of living when they cannot obtain game. A proper effort in this direction might induce them to engage in pastoral pursuits when they would not adopt a general agricultural life.

This was evidently the intention of the government making the treaty with the Tabequaches, but thus far it has failed entirely-mainly because of the manner in which the treaty has been fulfilled, or, rather, disregarded-because but little attention seems to have been paid to its terms.

My interview with the Tabequaches satisfied me that it would not be difficult to induce them, by liberal treatment on the part of the government. to adopt the course suggested.